Into the unknown
by Constance-Lirit
Summary: I hated how Gaara was treated as a child so made this story so he found love, its a cheesy fluff but it's one of my best My summary is terrible so don't take it too seriously .
1. In the beguinning

Little kids run around in the deserted canyon outcrop with a football, kicking it higher and higher as they play. The sky grey and dull around them making the scene depressing and dull, A little boy with short red hair and blue eyes hidden by black rings around his eyes sits with his stuffed bear swaying to and fro silently watching from the shadows but never joining in. No one seems to care and just ignore him as if he was never there laughing until there hearts where content. The tallest boy kicks the ball too hard and it ends up stuck high above on the top of a cliff's ridge, they didn't even think to notice how strangely the ball just floated up at a straight angle without bounding off anything around it.

"What should we do now? We can't use the wall climbing technique yet" everyone's eyes widen as the ball suddenly floats up and off from above and gently down towards the now standing child, catching it in his small pale hands and looking at it before sifting his eyes to the group of children.

"here" everyone begins to freak out and back off, uttering the small boys name in fear, without another word they began running away screaming except for one girl who scowls at the groups with anger and then looks the boy in the eyes gently so as not to upset his already crumbling face.

"thank you" the girl steps closer, the little boy seems very nervous about her coming near him after how the rest had acted but she just smiles and holds her hands out to retrieve the ball.

"So your names Gaara-chan? That's a cute name" the girl smiles and tilts her head before looking at his little bear and making her grin grow wider.

"I have a bear just like that only it's blue, does he have a name?" Gaara looks at her rather perplexed and unsure of how to actually answer her, his mouth opens then shuts several times making the girl blink at him with awe. Stretching a hand out she rubs his red hair making Gaara look at her with further confusion, she turns to leave giving a gentle wave but he grabs her shirt stopping her.

"what's wrong?" the boy just looks at the ground before letting her go, the group had stopped and where stalking about close by watching with fear but curiousty for what was going on.

"Gaara-chan? Are you okay?" comfort seems to cross Gaara's face at the mention of his name in such a softened monotone, she was no taller than him and around his age; her hair was long and red with purple on top slithering in and out of her hair in random area's, her eyes where a mystical and hypnotising sapphire with ruby ringed around it and threaded through in random area's just like her purple hair. She flinch's for a second before she finds her self being cuddled by him, his face snuggled into her shoulder without him saying anything. Turning her head to a rock thrown at her back she glares deathly at the group but hides the threat from Gaara and takes his hand.

"c'mon lets go play on the swings for a little while" Gaara only gives a short and almost misplaced breath while he finds himself dragged away from the group creeping closer. Gaara swung quietly looking at the girl swaying faster and higher on the swing set laughing loudly the closer she could get to the clouds, letting go she flies awkwardly into the air and lands on her bum making dust rise. Gaara jumps from the swing and runs over to find her fall back and look at him with a silly grin.

"whoa….that was fun, you don't say very much. Its okay though there's no need to be so nervous around me" she smiles and gives him a hug out of the blue then runs back to the swing to do it again, Gaara watching worried that she would end up landing on her head the second time. She finally got bored and sat down on the ground, Gaara joins her and stares at her silently making her glance at him then peer down before rising her head back up to meet his eyes with a smile.

"my names Adriel Uncas, I only just moved here with my parents a couple days ago" boys stand in a circle from far off leaning in and speaking to them selves before walking closer and closer towards the 2 kids sitting on the dusty floor.

"hey Gaara, we want to play football think you can leave before you give us your filthy demon disease?" some glare and some smirk smugly at the comment, Gaara rises silently as Adriel gets up and stands behind him. The dust swirls and passes across the ground at their feet, the boys stop smirking and glare him straight in the eyes.

"didn't you hear what we said? Go home, monster" one boy throws a rock at him but it's blocked by Adriel now standing in front of him scowling at them venom drips from her very mouth as she warns them.

"back off and leave him alone" she snarls with her arms up to protect Gaara, the boys back only an inch before throwing another rock. This rock nearly slash's the side of her cheek making her right eye shoot closed, she doesn't give up her defence, her voice becoming deeper.

"I said leave him alone, he hasn't done anything to you" Adriel scowls in defence while Gaara's hand presses against her back but she ignores him as 2 taller teens confront her and crack their knuckles.

"she must have been mind controlled by the monster, lets beat him to near death until he lets her go" the teens reach out to grab her shoulder but she leans backwards into Gaara with a beast like snarl making them flinch back.

"I'm not under any stupid mind control, and even if I was I wouldn't let you hurt Gaara-chan!" she bellows loudly backing off and snatching his hand, dragging him swiftly away from them. Being chased after until they reach the city's entrance, Gaara and Adriel hide in an alley way until they charge past shouting and cursing. She mutters something to her self as she pokes her head out and makes sure they where gone, turning to Gaara she notices he is looking grimly upset his teddy was no where to be seen.

"Gaara-chan where's your bear?" Gaara's eyes widen as she looks around in panic then starts to form tears around his black shaded eye rings, in a fright Adriel gives him a cuddle and rubs the back of his red hair muttering to him softly.

"don't cry…c'mon I'll walk you home" they walk through the down street with her holding onto his small fingers in her also small hands rubbing his knuckle in a comforting manner then smiling gently and giving him one last hug.

"lets play together tomorrow?" Gaara looks up at her with wide eyes and squeeze's her tightly almost sucking the air out of her, she giggles to her self and scruffs his head again before walking away down the darkening path away from his house. Sweltering heat scorches the ground around the desert city, people walk around trying to cool down with fans in hand and panting like dogs. Gaara walks quietly down the street with people gasping and hiding or suddenly dodging out of his path, Gaara gives a long drawn out sigh and looks around with saddened eyes; he missed his bear and felt like breaking down at the loss of his favourite and only stuffed bear. Eyes brighten to the sight of the girl from yesterday laughing and chatting to a tall man by a store with stubble all over his chin, her smile becomes larger when Gaara comes over. The man looks down at him and gives a big smile as well.

"ohh so this is who you where ranting on about all of last night?" Adriel looks up at him with a panicked face and blush's madly.

"I wouldn't say I was being that excessive about it dad!! Well I'm going to go play I'll be back later for dinner" her eyes shoot open as she looks at Gaara then back up at her dad. "daaaad" she speaks in a sweetened tone and looks up at him with puppy dog eyes, her dad knew she wanted something or else she would of ran off already. "can Gaara-chan have dinner with us tonight?" Gaara almost skips a heart beat, no one wanted him in their house let alone near it. Her dad looks down at her adoring face, eyes becoming bigger and bigger with pleading whimpers.

"I don't really mind, but have you even thought to ask Gaara-chan if he wants to?" Adriel looks down from her peak of self indulgence to look at Gaara who was still in a state of shock from her request.

"Gaara-chan? Do you want to have dinner with us tonight?" Gaara snaps out of his trans and nods slowly and silently, she grins showing all of her teeth looking as if she was about to burst from her shoes into the air with excitement. "ah Gaara-chan, you remember how you lost your teddy last night? Well I have a surprise for you!" rustling into a tanned bag on her dads waist she yanks out his precious teddy and shows it to him, a little red ribbon is tied to its wrist. Gaara's mind was almost ready to burst from all this kindness pushed onto him all at once but it didn't stop him from latching onto the teddy and hugging the life out of it severally.


	2. Friendship Bubbles

Gaara and Adriel sit in her bedroom toying with random bits of paper and drawing silly pictures on the paper, Gaara looks up at her with a questioning look and then at his arms wrapped around his bear not wanting to tae his eye off it for a minute. "Adriel-chan? Why are you being so nice to me, aren't you afraid of me like everyone else?" Adriel stops her scribbling and looks up at him as if hurt by the comment, her mouth opens then closes before curling up into a little playful smile.

"well I guess it's because Gaara-chan isn't scary" haplessly she crawls over and sits beside him giving him another cuddle, she seemed obsessive over giving Gaara at least one hug an hour. "besides, you're my friend" Adriel is almost shoved to the floor by the bear hug Gaara had now placed upon her, his face buried deeply into her and not being removed. She wince's making Gaara jump up in fear to see her clutching her stomach for a second then looks up at him trying to pretend she hadn't done anything.

"Adriel-chan?" she wafts her hand and smiles like a hopeless child again trying to dodge his next question, Gaara's eyes wonder back to his teddy and he thinks about if for a moment. He had dropped it back where that big group of people had been, a sudden worried expression crops up on his face as he looks back up at her."why did you go back there where those kids had been just to get my bear back?" Adriel blinks trying to look confused but a confessed face slides its way down her face and her head drops low.

"you looked so sad when you found out your bear was gone, I didn't want you to worry about him so I went to get him back" she lifts her shirt slowly to show a small portion of the bright bruises and deep cuts across her torso that had been inflicted from the gang after trying to rescue his bear. Wiping it down quickly to the sound of her dad entering with their dinner and leaving swiftly with a smirk on his face, she looks at him suspiciously as he closes the door.

"don't worry about it, you're happy right?" Adriel smiles and bites into her food followed by Gaara who eats slower than her and finds him self still eating while she has gone back to drawing on her paper, her mum appears in the door and looks at them both with a smile.

"do you two want dessert now?" Gaara looks down to his still full plate, Adriel looks at his plate then at her mum.

"is it okay if we leave it in the fridge and have it later?" her mum nods and shuts the door again. Adriel smiles at Gaara and looks at him back and forth quickly and colours in on her page before sitting up with a proud monotone.

"finished! Look Gaara-chan" she holds up a picture of Gaara holding his bear making him smile as she hands it to him then sits by his side quietly.

"do wounds hurt?" Adriel turns her head to look at him and quirks her head towards him.

"the bruises on your stomach?" Gaara looks at her stomach again curiously but still sulking to him self secretly, she shakes her head confused.

"watch this..." he red head mumbles with a short shuffle as Gaara takes a small kunai from his pocket and jabs it towards himself, the sand flows up creating a barrier to protect him from its sharp cut.

"It's no use…the sand interferes" Adriel rubs his hand where the sand had appeared and opens her mouth slightly in amazement before she answers his previous question.

"they hurt just a little, it will heal quickly though" silence fills the air for a good 2 minutes before Gaara urges to speak again.

"what does pain feel like? I've never been hurt before, so I was wondering how it felt.." Adriel squirms and tries to figure out her next words.

"how should I explain this…it's painful and unbearable like, when a persons shot or cut he becomes very ill and he can't think normally" Adriel rubs her head in a confused state then grumbles before laying down on a small toy behind her.

"I can't explain it well, but simply put, it's not a very good condition to be in I guess…" Gaara doesn't say anything and just looks at Adriel's stomach with his eyebrows twitching softly.

"Adriel-chan?" she opens her eyes and peers up at him with a interested look.

"yes Gaara-chan?" Gaara presses his hand onto her stomach curiously, this time she didn't wince but she sat up slowly to meet his eye level.

"do you hate me?" she looks at the boy with cocked eye then gives him a bored and annoyed pout before wrapping him into a gentle cuddle."I already told you I don't, you're my friend Gaara-chan! People hurt each other and get hurt during their lifetime, but it's difficult to hate another" Gaara smiles and cuddles her back resting his head into her and closing his eyes, listening to her heart beating slowly to a peaceful rhythm.

"thank you, Adriel-chan. I think I understand what hurting is now, maybe I'm injured too like everyone else I always hurt here" Gaara leans his hand onto his rest and grips his shoulder cloak gently while she looks at him.

"I'm not bleeding, but my chest really hurts here" Adriel grips her arms around him tighter to the sound of the sand outside blowing harshly against the window's and walls, slicing away at the cement.

"think of it this way Gaara-chan. Flesh wounds bleed, and they may seem painful but as time goes by, the pain eventually disappears. And if you use medicine the wounds will heal even faster but the tricky wounds are the ones in your heart. Those are difficult to mend" Gaara peers down at his clutched fist now cupped closely by Adriel's hand, her thumb rubbing his fist again like before.

"a wound of the heart?" Adriel smiles then continues her small speech after seeing it seemed to catch onto Gaara.

"a wound of the heart is different from a flesh wound, unlike a flesh wound there are no ointments to heal it and there are times when they never heal…but there is one thing that can heal a wound of the heart" Gaara opens his half shut eyes to look her straight in the eyes to find the answer. Slowing down her voice and deepening her monotone she speaks softly to Gaara this time. "it is a troublesome medicine and you can only receive it from another person…" Gaara enthusiastically pushed her up onto her knees and stared her down deeply.

"what? How can I heal this?" Adriel smiles contently then picks up Gaara's dropped bear and looks at her reflection in its glass eyes that glisten in the light.

"the thing that can heal a wound of the heart is…" before she can answer her bedroom door opens and her dad sweeps in disturbing the conversation and making them both jump from the unexpected intrusion.

"it's getting late Adriel-chan! Best we start getting Gaara-chan home before that storm out side gets any worse" Adriel pouts and gives a disappointed sigh before pulling her self back onto her feet then helps Gaara up and nods.

"tomorrow is the spring time festival, want to go with me?" Adriel stands at his door and Gaara smiles but its lost with the thrashing sand surrounding them.

"I'm not aloud near the festivals, the people around here don't like me being there" Adriel is struck with an idea and whispers into his ear quickly before running away down the road home while waving bye to him, Gaara watches her rather confused then looks at his bear and nods before going inside and shutting the door he had forgotten all about the conversation from before; or perhaps he was trying to avoid finding an answer.


	3. Ice clamps

All around Gaara was streamers and other festival things being set up for the party, he stood at the outskirt of town and waited for Adriel to appear; she took her sweet time finally appearing with a paper bag and holding it out to him.

"I had an idea of how we can go to the festival together" Gaara peers into the bag then back up at her, she also had a paper bag. Inside was a pair of masks and a change of clothes for the both of them, Gaara caught on and smiled at Adriel before running off with her to get changed into their disguises. Large cheers and crowds cramped into the streets to enjoy the festival from all sorts of villages, Gaara and Adriel stalk about in cogito playing on the random games and snacking on the festival treats before retreating onto a high up roof to watch the fireworks as they banged loudly in a flurry and ray of multi colours making them both open their mouths and widen their eyes in excitement to see what the next shape the fireworks where going to make next. Gaara pulled at his kimono and mask irritated by it, the kimono was black with red roses embroidered on and a blank, colourless, white fox mask; Adriel sits next to him in a white kimono with black rose buds and petals printed onto it and a white fox mask, painted in silly ways and colours.

"this is so cool, have you been to a festival before Gaara-chan?" Gaara shakes his head and Adriel grins shuffling closer to him.

"neither have I, hope I get to see more festivals soon" she holds up her last dango to Gaara and then puts into the hanky in her pocket and pulls out a camera.

"lets take a picture of us with the fireworks in the background, quick!" dragging him into a arm lock the camera is held up to face them.

"smile Gaara-kun" Gaara burst into a smile and a flurry of blushing to Adriel's sweet sounding voice saying his name, the camera flash's to a large bang behind them blinding them both for a couple of seconds. Adriel giggles looking at the picture on her camera and then showing Gaara.

"you should smile more, you look cute when you do" she cuddles him again before heading towards the door back to the streets.

"it's getting late ohm, Gaara-chan would you like to have a sleep over?" Gaara nods briefly and unsurely before taking Adriel's hand and heading back to hers, eyes fixed on Adriel and his mouth open slightly he watches her frap with a tent and shove covers into it with a couple bears then sticking her head out.

"going to come in and not just stand there Gaara-chan?" Adriel pulls her head back into the tent to let Gaara in, inside where covers against the tent walls and a small hole on the top to let the rooms light into it from above. Gaara sits on his side of the tent while she messes about with something turned away from him, her head turns to get eye contact then blushes.

"remember that bear I told you about when we first met?" Gaara nods making Adriel smile and hold out a teddy in front of him, it has green beads for eyes and shimmers a dark blue colour under the light.

"looks just like your teddy-chan" Adriel swaps bears and flaps its arms giving it a silly voice then making its nose tap his cheek.

"chu chu chu" her lips curl up and then her head is poked out from the tent to look at her dad at the door with his hand on the switch.

"bed time you 2, lights out now and try to keep it down" Adriel nods and zips up the tent then when the door latch is shut she turns on a small torch shining it to see Gaara.

"I'm too hyper to go to sleep just yet, lets play a game" loud thumps are heard as she escapes the confined tent and brings in a board game.

"I'm going to be red, want to be blue Gaara-chan?" Gaara nods and takes the piece putting it on the starting square. They play this game for 2 hours before Adriel begins to drift off snuggled into her covers and cuddling Gaara's bear, Gaara sits next to her watching her quietly while her eyes squint then open fully to look at a warm feeling now on her stomach. Gaara lays staring at the ceiling with his head on her tummy. She gives a gentle and whispered 'aww' before closing her eyes and beginning to go to sleep. In the morning she woke up to the sweet smell of breakfast fluttering into her room, Gaara sits hunched up at the end of the tent just staring into space as if in a trance until she sat up and gave him a small nudge.

"morning Gaara-chan! Did you sleep well?" Gaara looks away to his feet and gives an awkward nod making her pout then give him a gentle cuddle to make him smile.

"lets have something to eat then go to the park, there's something I need to tell you" her eyes look to the floor then come back up to meet his and then gives him a big grin, Gaara could tell it had been forced. After eating their breakfast they go to the park; Gaara and Adriel sit alone on the swings but she isn't doing her usual large swing's and noisy shouting and laughing, instead they sat in silence looking at the dust spinning around and small lizards run for cover to the rain starting to drip softly from the cloudy sky.

"what did you want to tell me Adriel-kun?" she stands up and he stands to follow her, the rain became heavier Gaara stands in front of her but she keeps her saddened eyes to the ground Gaara smiles at her with an innocent face. "what's wrong?" Adriel closes her eyes and uses the back of her wrist to rub at the rain dripping down her cheeks and looks at him.

"this is my last day here in the sand village before we leave back to my home land" Gaara's smile fades and his eyes widen into dread, his head shakes.

"your lying!" Adriel looks at him with an honest face, her eyes starting to water but the rain lashing down on them both hides this.

"Gaara-kun…" Adriel reaches her hand out but Gaara smacks it away refusing her touch and backing away still refusing to listen.

"your lying, your lying Adriel-chan!" Gaara turns on his heels and runs away from her quickly her hand still reached out, her mouth opens and a single tear streams down her cheeks as she watches him run away into the darkness of the deserts canyon's path.

The next morning Gaara stood in front of the house where Adriel had been staying, the house was empty of all signs of anyone ever being there, an old woman glares down on him before speaking abruptly."the people who where staying here have left already, but the little girl who was staying here left you something" she holds out a small black silken pouch towards Gaara before turning and trotting with her head high down the empty street. Gaara peered down towards the pouch before opening it, inside is a single silver locket with a single L carved into its front. Popping it open inside is a picture of him and Adriel cuddling from the festival, pink and red fireworks in the shape of a heart is formed behind them; also in the bag he finds a single note from Adriel.

[Gaara, I will always miss you even now while I'm writing this letter I can feel my heart breaking in two. You made my visit to the desert village so much fun; maybe fate will brings us together again until then know that my love is always with you, this locket is to remind you of that. With all my love and best wishes Adriel xxx]


	4. Laccadascle

[several years later in the Hidden lead village]

A group of young boys and a girl run frantically from a pink woman charging at them with the element of death flowing around her, a boy is snatched up by a man in black with purple markings to the horror of the group and he holds the small boy up by the collar with a smug and evil smirk plastered on his face. "that hurt brat" he grips tighter making him wince in pain and grip the teens wrist tighter in an attempt rebel to escape.

"put him down, stop it. We're going to get scolded later" a blonde woman snaps to her partner angrily, she holds the sand symbol and a large closed fan on her back. The pink girl speaks up in worry in defence "I'm sorry, I was joking around. So…" the blonde teen in an orange suit yells at him with anger.

"hey! Let go of him you stupid bakka!" his yelling only amuses the man in black further and his smug smile returns to him.

"but I want to play around before some noisy people come" he jokes sarcastically ah he looks at the small boy dangling from his reached out and up arm, the boy kicks and shouts at him to let go helplessly but it all fatally entertains the sand village student even more. "you're very energetic, kid" the teen in orange becomes infuriated and runs at him ready to attack, the student smirks and shifts his fingers; the charging leaf village teen falls flat on his back for no reason.

"Konoha's Genins are weak" everyone stares in horror with useless faces trying to figure out what to do.

"hey! If you don't let go of him, you're going to get it!" the blonde boy jumps up and points towards them angrily, the teen with pink hair grabs him into an arm lock and squeeze's his throat angrily. "you bakka! Don't provoke him!!" the man glares angrily "you piss me off" the sand village glares looking at them.

"I hate short people anyway, and you're so impertinent for someone younger than me. It makes me want to break you" his head turns back to the young boy still in his cupped fist "after this short kid, the short kid over there is next" he raises his fist to punch the boy but that's when a sudden outburst of ice comes flying at the sand villagers arm wrapping around it and pinning it to the near by tree. He jumps in fright at the attack that had been set off without even a single noticed presence, he lets go of the young boy. Forming ice creates a Shute that catches the falling kid and he slides down it to his friends, this whole thing takes everyone by surprise; turning around a masked stranger walks towards them with their arms crossed.

"hmmm? Picking on defenceless children are we?" the muffled voice speaks broadly at the man fumbling to try escape the ice's grasp to no avail he scowls and furrows his eyebrows at the person, the stranger looks in front of them but never down at the people at their feet.

"are you okay" a emotionless monotone comes from the mask's mouth slit, even if emotion had been shown it was well hidden behind it; they nod silently before the masked hero steps forward towards sand village Genin. "I hate kids like you, who think they're so clever" the man growls bitterly using his one free hand to grab onto the strap of whatever was on his back, the blonde woman freaks out and yells at her partner.

"hey! You're going to use Karasu?!" the strange thing from his back is smacked onto the ground beside him while the wrappings flutter around him, a new voice is heard from around them.

"Kankuro, stop" everyone looks up at the upside down red head above them on a far up tree branch staring at them, the masked stranger is last to look up and silently stares with no movement what so ever. A boy had black rings around his eyes and a large gourd on his back and the symbol of love placed upon his forehead, he's silent before emotionlessly speaking once again.

"you're a disgrace to our village" everyone is taken by surprise by his words, Kankuro whimpers as he looks above him.

"G-Gaara…" he nervously closes his eyes and gives a forced smile in fear of the teen, the stranger walks up to the teen unnoticed and places her hand on the ice wrapped around his trapped arm and dis-spells it from the teen. Kankuro rubs his arm and looks at the masked figure who was no taller than him with a short glare which the masked figure ignores and walks back towards the leaf village Genin silently.

"why do you think we came all the way here to Konoha?" Gaara emotionlessly stares at them his partner.

"Listen, Gaara these guys started it" Kankuro pleads and starts to sweat with fear at Gaara.

"shut up" Gaara grumbles but keeps his emotionless face, Kankuro wince's at Gaara's now formed death glare.

"I'll kill you" Kankuro raises his arms defensively and takes a step backwards "I was at fault, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry" Gaara turns towards the group of leaf villagers.

"excuse them, you guys" he keeps his face straight on the masked figure as he uses a sand spell to cast him self down from the tree to the street below, Gaara was a little shorter than his 2 partners.

"let's go. We didn't come here to fool around" the masked figure steps forward while they walk away.

"wait, I have to ask you something" the 3 stop but don't turn around to face them.

"judging from your forehead protectors, you are ninjas from the Hidden village of the Sand right?" the pink haired girl states bluntly towards them.

"the county of fire and the country of wind have an alliance but a treaty prevents ninjas from entering each other's countries without permission, state your purpose" the pink haired teen monotone was plain but demanding, for the first time the 3 of them turned around and look at them.

"what you're looking for is closer to you than you think, you don't know anything?" the blonde girl looks her up and down, she holds up a card with her picture on it to show them. "this is a traffic pass, as you guessed, we're Genins of the Hidden Village of the sand from the country of wind we came to this village to take the Chuunin selection exam" the blonde boy in orange stares confused.

"what's a Chuunin selection exam?" the smallest boy looks at him bluntly."Naruto, you can advance from a Genin to a Chuunin if you pass the exam" Naruto's face brightens up as he gives a cheesy grin.

"Really? Then I should take it to!" Naruto went into a tangent of how he will pass while the masked figure silently walks away in the direction Gaara was standing; stopping by his side but not looking at him.

"what's your name?" the figure starts to slowly step away without another word.

"Gaara of the Desert, I am also interested in you. What's your name?" the person stops now completely behind him with their back turned towards them, they don't say anything for a moment before walking away to avoid the question when the wind slides along their clothes making it flutter gently to the soft breeze.

After swift training from every group everyone piles in for the starting Chuunin's "c'mon we're late for our first Chuunin exam!!" a boy yells as everyone piles up in the hallways to get into the room, many different villages where here from al over the land for the Chuunin exams. Inside a large room all of the different villages where compact and yelping to each other loudly, the door slides open and 3 new students stalk in silently through the dark corridor and stand in the corner at the very front. The masked person from before was between them and most likely the leader of their little pack. They still wore a mask hiding their face from everyone, everyone in the room look at them with strange stares.

"they don't have any head protectors on?" some whisper to each other, only a minute later there's a thump and a loud blonde boy storms in with 2 others behind him; his loud yelling is silenced to the many death glares now upon him but he seems to forget it when he see's the masked person with their trio and runs over loudly.

"hey! You're the person from before!" he yaps loudly to them hoping to get an answer but silence is all Naruto gets, one of the trio jolts them in the side with his elbow and then smiles at Naruto.

"sorry! Daydreaming is about all this bakka does" the masked figure turns to look at them then back and rubs the back of their head and tilts their head.

"heh heh! Sorry, Naruto-san? Was it?" the masked person bluntly questions to his enthusiastic grin.

"yes! Naruto Uzumaki! This is Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno!" they both look at the 3 and the masked girl bows politely towards them and stays there.

"it's a pleasure to meet you all" Sakura smiles and lifts their head back up with a laugh.

"there's no need to be so formal around us" Sakura awkwardly looks at them then around the room at the hostile groups.

"whoa this place is…there's so many people. Are all these people taking the exam?" the masked ninja speaks loudly to try distract every single eye on the room from the weak looking leaf ninja.

"yep every single one of us! To be honest there's more people than I thought but this is only test 1" Sakura turns to look while Naruto reach's for the mask to try pry it off, the person flinches away with surprise at the finger tips wriggling at the bottom of the mask; Naruto's eyes squint as he stares.

"what's with the mask? And why don't you have a headband anyway?" Naruto bluntly questions looking the 2 up and down they all wore white robe and hood with a large brown leather belt over the stomach anda red sash down the middle and the white cloak cut down the middle section on the back and front. A leather strap buckles to the red cloth on the hip and chains around to the back. The belt has holes that clearly show their held Kunai and they wear leather brown boots also armoured around the ankles and up the legs. The trio all wear fingerless leather gloves with armour scale for protection, it looked heavier than any other ninja armour they had ever seen.

"you look like you're ready for war, how do you move in all that stuff?" the masked figure chuckles and rubs their fingers on the green scale like armour on the gauntlet.

"we use weights from when we are young to practise strength and agility with heavy objects, like that off the Taijutsu ninja, apart from that we are from the Village hidden in the snow" they all pull out their head protectors to show them, they had never seen a snow village group before so this sent some gasps around the room.

"Hidden village of Snow? You guys are very rare!" a new voice is heard and a teen with glasses and grey hair walks out to the front to talk to them, then another new voice that girly calls out and latches onto Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun, you're late!" the voice squeals pathetically making the snow team turn head again to see who else had shown up.

"I've been eagerly waiting for you ever since I heard that I could see you for the first time in a long time" the masked ninja rubs her head partly confused by what she had just said, Sakura seemed to become jealous of the girl latching onto her team mate.

"get away from Sasuke-kun! You Ino-pig!" Sakura snarls bitterly at Ino.

"oh my, it's you Sakura. Your forehead is wide and you're still ugly… as usual!" Ino retorts back to her smugly, the snow team stand silently dissapearing to the farthest wall to escape the silly groups of people now taunting each other, but in a friendly manner.


	5. Information

The masked ninja looks to a boy with a puppy on his head and almost melts; walking over slowly she stares up at the dog making the teen flinch at the unnoticed closeness. "what a cute dog! What's his name?" the masked ninja rubs the dogs head while it gives a short yap.

"his names Akamaru" the masked ninja only looks at the dog for a moment before stepping away back to her team mates, the white haired teen finally speaks.

"you, you're the nine rookies that just graduated from the academy, correct? You're all fooling around with those cute face's…geez, this isn't a field trip" Ino scowls and raises her fist towards him.

"who are you to tell us what to do!?" she snaps at him, the boy only smiles ignoring the impoliteness.

"I am Yakushi Kabuto. Look around you…" everyone around them is still glaring at them all either emotionlessly or glaring evilly.

"the ones behind you are from the Hidden village of Rain, they have a short temper. Everyone is tense since it's right before the exams" there's a squeal burst as they turn to look at the snow ninja cuddling the life out of Akamaru happily, sweat drops run down all their heads.

"well…almost everyone" Kabuto push's his glasses up with a twitching eyebrow. "I guess it can't be helped though, since you are just rookies who don't know anything" the snow ninja stopped childishly playing with poor Akamaru and walks over thumping him in the back of the head silently.

"I would watch your mouth Kabuto-san, you're saying that to nine, strong, rookies" the sound villager grunts looking at her rubbing the back of his head.

"ahem, as I was saying…I know this because this is my seventh time trying the exam" he states bluntly with his fist on his hip.

"you must be an expert then Kabuto-san but if you haven't passed then the Chuunin exam must be that difficult? This is getting to sound even more troublesome by the minute" Kabuto pulls out a set of orange cards to show the group, spreading them out in his right hand.

"these cards have information burned into it using my chakra, would you like me to show you power checks of different people?" Kabuto kneels and places the set down while everyone crowd around to look. "it looks blank just now but to get the information from this card you can't view it without my chakra" in a puff of smoke information appears for different villages but the snow village, making the 3 smirk at their advantage. "the exam's total number of examinees and countries participating in this exam are shown right now, forgive me for not having your village on my card. It also has the number of participants from each hidden village" he looks to the 3 of them but they just shrug it off.

"I wouldn't fret about it Kabuto-san" they bluntly suggest looking to see what else he was going to do.

"the real purpose in this Chuunin is to confirm the level of the ninja in each adjacent country to try and balance out the power" Kabuto's hand vanishes the information."if they don't do that the weak countries will be invaded and dominated by the strong ones" the snow Genin leader states bluntly looking at Kabuto who nods. Sasuke steps forward to look at Kabuto.

"I want to see Gaara of the sands and Rock Lee from Konoha's power levels" Kabuto looks quite surprised at the instant question then takes two cards from the bundle.

"good to know you know their names then it won't take much time" he fumbles about doing swift hand gestures to the top of the cards. "Rock Lee has done 20 D-rank missions and 11 C-ranked ones, squad leader being Guy, and his hand-to-hand combat skills have increased dramatically this past year, but his other skills are terrible. His team consists of Tenten and Hyuuga Neji" Kabuto takes away the card and places the new one on top and puts his finger on it, the snow village maskee kneels in to take a closer look now; more curious to this certain person.

"next let's see Gaara of the Desert, he has completed eight C-ranked ones and…this is amazing he did a B rank mission as a Genin!" the masked ninja mumbles something to their self softly but can be heard. "that's Gaara-san for you…" Kabuto looks at them before taking interest in the cards again.

"he is a foreign ninja and it's his first time taking the exam, so I don't have any more information on him, but it seems that he has returned from all of his missions unharmed. He has 2 other partners, Kankuro and Temari" they gasp and stare at it like it was a miracle. "he did a B-rank mission as a Genin and wasn't harmed?" they mutter astonished but the snow village group say nothing and stand up to speak between them selves away from everyone else.

Soon everyone does their first test and pass into the next round with flying colours, later on everyone stands in the field waiting to be let into the next round, the forest of death as the teacher called it. Gaara stands close by his emotionless glare fixed to the snow villagers now wearing their head bands, the masked one turns around every so often to look at him; tilting their head and giving a short wave at him before turning away to listen to the teacher holding up 2 scrolls and explaining the rules before setting them off.

Inside the forest the 3 Snow ninja move through slowly looking at their surroundings and taking it all in, their suddenly challenged by Rain Genin that they fight off easily.

"that was too easy, but it's the wrong scroll" one spits looking at the heaven scroll, the masked leader takes it and looks.

"I have an idea, stay hidden away" they jump off followed by the 2 others, finally trailing to a clearing where they had been following Gaara's chakra. The masked Genin hides in the brush watching Gaara standing with his group against 3 Rain ninja, close by another group also hiding and watching what was going on the silent standing at defence broke.

"hey, kid. You should be more careful in picking your opponents" one of the rain Genin speaks looking at Gaara with a plain expression.

"you are all going to die" his smile grows largely at his comment towards them, getting ready to attack them.

"cut the chatter, lets fight old man from the Hidden village of Rain" Gaara emotionlessly points out with his arms crossed looking rather bored at the whole situation."shouldn't we follow them and gather the information before we pick a fight? If they have the same scroll as us there's no need for us to fight unnecessary fights are…" Kankuro reasons with Gaara who seems to be partially ignoring him, Gaara interrupts him abruptly.

"it doesn't matter, I'll kill everyone we encounter" Gaara states glaring the rain Genin down with the intention to kill, the mask snow Genin rustles the bush trying to get closer to hear what's going on, the rain villagers shrug it off and grab their weapons.

"then let's do this!" he throws umbrellas into the air above and makes several hand gestures, the umbrella's begin to spiral in the air, they suck in air preparing to spit needles back out towards the ground.

"this strikes from above, below, left and right. There is no escape, the needles are also regulated with my chakra, and will attack the target!" the rain ninja states with an optimistic tone, the masked hero gasps as the attacks smack down on Gaara without him even moving to try dodge. The dust rises up covering up what ever had happened in a sheet of dirt, slowly fading to show that not a single needle had hit him, the masked ninja continues to watch silently and emotionlessly where as everyone else gasped and stared.

"is that it?" Gaara emotionlessly speaks looking at the petty attempt of an attack surrounding him.

"what…? Not even one hit? He's unarmed that's impossible!" he slaps his hands together to prepare another Jutsu, Gaara hides behind a crumbling orb of sand glaring from behind his shield.

"that's all you've got? Then, I'll make it a rain of blood fall" the rain ninja stares in amazement at the defence.

"he controls the sand inside the gourd and hardens it with an enormous amount of chakra, it is a technique only permissible by Gaara, and is used to protect his body and regardless of Gaara's will, this is all done automatically. In other words, all attacks against Gaara are nullified" Kankuro states at no one in particular.

"you guys don't stand a chance against Gaara" Kankuro snidely remarks at the now pissed off ninja running at them.

"he's dead…." Gaara cups his hand and thrusts it forward to command his sand.

"Desert Coffin!" all the sand blasts up and around the ninja group trapping them to where they are fixated, the man tries to hide the fact that he is screwed with snide remarks towards Gaara but they are dismissed with a death glare as Gaara grabs one of this oppositions umbrellas.

"I can cover your loud mouth and kill you, but this would be too miserable on your side" Gaara puts the umbrella above his head and slowly raises his hand up making the man in the sand cocoon rise into the air, he twists his hand into a fist and calls broadly out.

"Desert Funeral!" the man is crushed completely into nothing and his blood spatters around the open field like rain onto everyone around them.

"there was no pain because there was no time to even feel it, the tears and blood of the dead mixes with an endless quicksand and further fuels the war" the men hold out their scroll in a pleading manner and throw it out, Kankuro grunts angrily at the sight of the black scroll.

"I told you we should of checked before killing, Gaara" he grumbles peering to the back of Gaara's head then at the whimpering pair across the field, Gaara prepares his attack from before and sand bursts towards them without any emotion of stopping but to everyone's surprise the sand is smacked out of the way by an invisible defence making the sand blast up and block what ever had happened on the other side, Gaara's usually plain face's eyes widen along with everyone else's.

"You again!!" Kankuro yells angrily when the sand finally subsides to show the masked ice ninja standing with her hand up blocking the sand until it stops and drops lifelessly to the ground. The masked snow Genin says nothing and picks up the black scroll from the ground holding up a white one at the same level, the figure states for the two almost crying Rain ninja to run. Gaara glares at their escape then at the rescuer.

"thanks for helping me get the scroll I needed!" the ninja turns and Kankuro snarls and walks quickly forward.

"HEY! You bitch give that back" the masked ninja stops and turns to look at them and hold up the white earth scroll, flinging it into his hands; Kankuro, Gaara and Temari looks at it with disbelief then back at the now empty surroundings.

"what the hell?!" Temari shouts looking around for the ninja, Kankuro looks at Gaara still silently staring forward in deep thought.

"that Snow village Genin is weird, how the hell did they block Gaara's most powerful Jutsu?!" Kankuro grunts angrily to Temari, she just rolls her eyes."at least we have the scroll we wanted" Gaara's eyes turn to the bushes where more people are they all duck quickly to try hide.

"lets stop Gaara, we have what we wanted" Kankuro walks towards them, Gaara glances at him with a scowl.

"are you afraid? coward" Kankuro flinches persuading towards them anyway.

"Gaara! You might be okay but it's too dangerous for us! We just need one set of scrolls! We don't need anymore…" Gaara gives a deathly glare making him back of but an idea hatches to him and he leans in with a persuading face.

"you slacker, don't order me around!" Gaara raise's his hand up towards him but Kankuro shakes his hands around and grins nervously

"wouldn't you rather keep your energy to get that Hidden village of the Snow Genin?" Kankuro looks at Temari for back up, she catches on and jumps in.

"oh yes Gaara! Why kill useless and weak rookies when you could kill someone who opposes a REAL challenge!?" they both nod at him while Gaara arches his forehead where an eyebrwo (if it where there) would have been and then puts his hand back down.

"anyone who gets in my way will be killed, lets go" Gaara orders to the relief of the two siblings, he walks away and the hiding ninja drop onto the ground still shaking from their near to death experience.


	6. Forest Forces

It had finally became dark and the tower in the middle was poorly lighted and empty of any life expect for significant voice's echoing through the draftee halls and small open space rooms. "we got the scrolls with little to no effort, you're brilliant leader-sama!" the snow villager yells happily at the masked figure in the dark, both of her group members had giant cheesy grins.

"no ones here though…we finished really early do you think we might become record holders?" the 3 perch on bench's in a large room looking around, the other nods but the masked ninja stays silent and staring blankly into space. More voice's are heard from outside in the hallway along with slow foot steps getting louder and drifting closer towards the room.

"there's no other place to go to" one muffle led voice mutters another replies just as bored and muffled as the last.

"we've waited for 12 hours now, how much longer do we have to wait?" poking their head around and giving a blunt stare at the group, Kankuro's blank face springs into an angry base as he jumps out and points furiously.

"YOU!!" the 2 heads turn and look at him with perplexed face's, the masked one just stays seated ignoring his presence. Gaara and Temari walk past him ignoring him at first until they sit down opposite the Snow Genin and look up, Temari jumps up pointing just as pissed off.

"you're the bakka from before!!" the masked figure still stares away from them without paying any attention until one of their comrade's elbows her again.

"dude you need to stop zoning out like that, their talking to you!" one grunts scolding the leader until their head unfreeze's and rotates at the sand ninja silently, mask faced and fixed to Gaara without saying anything; finally they speak but not to the sand Genin at all.

"ahh, it's so boring in this tower why did you wake me up I was having a nice day dream" the group smack their hands to their face's and wipe down with shock horror.

"Kami you're something Leader-sama" the leader laughs bluntly then turns head towards the group of ranting sand ninja.

"oh hello again, didn't know you where here" everyone just looks at them with -WTF face's- the masked figure gets up and stretches then peers around.

"so we 6 are all that's got here? How dull…knowing the rest it will be days before more appear, maybe they have some food around here; what I wouldn't do for a Dango" the Leader sarcastically mumbles behind her muffled mask to no one in particular.

"so you're Gaara of the Desserts?" Kankuro twitches his eye and Temari tries to hold back a snigger.

"Gaara of the Desert!" Kankuro snaps the masked figure tilts their head and rubs it.

"that's what I said! Gaara of the Desserts!" Kankuro grits his teeth while Temari cups her mouth twitching her shoulders uncontrollably, Gaara looks at the hopeless company around him and then looks blankly at the masked ninja.

~yawn~ the masked hero flops back over the bench and stretches out, dangling half of their body off the bench and looking at them from a side angle.

They squiggle around uncontrollably ending up rolling off onto the floor with a thump into a clump of ninja clothes and grunting, lazily just lying there and starting to snore to the disbelief of everyone around.

"oh dear kami…for someone so…arg what a bakka" the members rub fingers into their hair and pick the leader up and onto the bench, propping them up into the sitting position then leaving them like that. To their astonishment the body stays fixed as if they where awake.

"lets draw on Leader-sama's mask again?" one suggest pulling a pen out and popping off the cap then leaning forward, the other pulls him back with a struggle. "last time you did that we ended up in a block of ice!" he shouts loudly disturbing the Leader's sleep, the head lifts up and an evil sounding grunt is heard making the 2 guys shiver and back up to the sight of their Leader getting up.

"you're too noisy…" the leader mutters the groupie's get on their knee's begging to the interest of Gaara watching them plead.

"please! Anything but that!" one yells praying to the angry soul in front of them, ignoring it they end up shoved in a block of ice and frozen; the leader sits back down crossing their arms and legs in the process and tilts their head forward silently.

"swear if they keep disturbing me…" Kankuro prods the ice and it shimmers and gives him a icy chill up his spine, then looks at the masked Leader creeping closer.

"why do you hide behind that mask anyway? You must be really ugly!" Kankuro snidely bends down and taps the forehead of the mask with his nail, the Leader's hands reach up and squish at the ear shaped hood on top of his head searching for cat ears.

"hmm, suppose you wish you where a dog or does being Gaara-sans lap dog require you to wear that?" Kankuro glare's through the mask trying to see the eyes of the beholder but its black and never ending as if there is no face inside at all, Temari sniggers making Kankuro turn to look at her obviously applaud that she found the remark funny.

"for someone who urgently needs their death you're quiet amusing" Temari has now came over to look at the mask curiously, Gaara had moved and was now sitting next to the Leader meaning they where completely surrounded but it didn't seem to bother them.

"what's under the mask? Buck teeth?" Kankuro prods the mask again along with Temari.

"huge lips?" Temari ponders now also interested by the mysterious ninja trying to hide their identity.

"pointy lips?" Gaara leans in closer to the Leader, his closeness seemed to get to them and makes them shuffle around nervously; the ice started to thaw and shatter as her members are released into gasps for air.

"d-dammit….I…hate you L-Leader-sama" one gasps chattering their teeth making the leader shift away from the prodding Sand Genin, pulling them to their feet they're yanked out of the room. "say bye to the nice people" the Leader bluntly calls as they unsurely wave then look at each other confused.

Now the actual fights had begun and names where being called, the Snow Genin stood on the same side as Gaara but they keep to them selves. The board starts to roll new names and a boy called 'Markus Jegno' they jump down while the opponents name is still being rolled it stops to the sudden single misplaced breath from Gaara, something that took Temari and Kankuro by surprise. 'Adriel Uncas' the masked Leader jumps from the railings down to the floor below to meet the opposition.

"you don't look like much" Markus smugly grins looking the ninja up and down then around the room, everyone seemed rather curious to how this battle was going to go.

"you ready to get your ass whooped little girl?" Markus snidely smirks at the frozen enemy and raises an eyebrow towards her.

"what you're so nervous you can't even move? HAH" the ninja claps his hands making so few around the room laugh amusingly. Gaara stood closer to the bars now staring at the Leader but not showing any unusual interest in the fight.

"when you are ready, on the count of three" the referee rasps as he calls holding his hand and slicing it down the air to the third number.

"hey maybe once I've maimed you we can go on a date" the teen cackles with a dirty grin but Adriel rolls it off and just stands there like a statue waiting.

"looks like I'm making the first move? How boring but I suppose woman never where good fighters" the man laughs loudly, other men grin while every other women coldly glare. Without any other warning he runs at the sculpture which easily steps out of the way of every attack without breaking a sweat.

"tssk, quit dodging you slimy eel!" he shouts now casting a Jutsu that summons needles that rain down after her, she just runs away from them in a spinning pattern then at the man who's eyes widen as she jumps over his head making the needles rain down onto him, in an attempt he raises his arms to protect him self.

Needles stab into his arms making him wince in pain as Adriel skids to a halt back where she stood before peering at him as he yanks the needles from his arms cursing under his breath.

"using other peoples attacks against them? Pathetic and weak" he growls pulling the last needle out and throwing it to the cold ground and runs towards her with his kunai, she jumps up into the hair and on the way down when he throws them she uses her free leg and kicks him in the side making him fly into a wall with a loud and brutal crunch making a small sea of --oooo, hssk- pursue. the guy pulls him self out from the wall staggering for a short time until he gets stead.

"that's all you have?" he taunts distracting her from the kunai that comes up from her shadow slicing part of her cloaks end, he throws more and more and they attack from all sides; because the shadow belonged to her she couldn't dodge all of them. Using an earth Jutsu Markus creates walls in the ground that project her shadows making her whole body now a potential target.

"you have no where to run now! Prepare to be sliced and diced, maybe if you plead with me I'll go lightly on you and let you be my girlfriend" Markus sniggers preparing this next attack, Adriel only snorts and gets into a defensive mode. Up above her team mates stand muttering to them selves "why isn't she attacking him? That guys nothing compared to her" they look down at her with glares and start shouting.

"Leader-sama! What are you doing? Kick his ass you bakka!" they rant to no effect as Adriel ignores them looking at the stupidly flirting ninja.

"like I'd date someone as rat faced as you, besides…I have my interest in someone else" Adriel simply shrugs and puts one hand on her hip, the man furrows his brow and smiles.

"what a shame, I guess you wont need to worry about him once I've cut up your face so badly he couldn't bare to look at you!" making hand signs he shoots out kunai from every single direction, Adriel jumps and flips and twirls and spins away from every single kunai being taken to her.

"that's more like our Leader!" the snow village Genin shout cheering at their agile and flexible leader, Markus and most others stare in complete awe at every single flexible move and bend Adriel does; anything that would of hit even the best of ninja was nothing compared to this.

"now she's just showing off" her team mates yell "hurry up and get on with it Leader-sama!" they yell again at the wriggling Genin and the twitching opponent now fuming at his useless attack and grabbing a kunai he throws it at her when she's doing a flip, in an attempt to block it, the bullet like kunai hits her straight in the forehead. Markus jeers happily to his hit as Adriel stands there bluntly again, her team members leaning further over the bars as the sound of cracking can be heard; Adriel's mask was starting to break apart.

"hmm? So I'll get to see what's under that mask of yours eh?" almost everyone jolts around to the one side to face the statue like Genin, all leaning in a mass clump for a better look.

"what's under the mask…" the man slowly questions as the mask's final hold is snapped the mask suddenly falls to reveal the face of the beholder. In unison everyone falls to the ground including the teachers watching and the Hokage, Gaara's eyes simply become larger then go back to its emotionless state so as not to show he had also been curious, Adriel raise's her finger to her chin.

"another mask~" she calls in a childish monotone at the Genin who seemed troubled by the great length the girl was taking to hide her real face, before he can move or speak she has disappeared and reappeared behind him; with a swift and invisible force he's down for the count.

Concluding her as the winner of that fight, Adriel picks up her snapped mask and gives a disgruntled sigh "my favourite mask…" Adriel grumbles loudly standing back on the balcony with her team looking at her still, silently; Gaara and his team where also looking at her without saying anything.

"what?" Adriel snaps playfully touching her body all over trying to find something stuck to her, the Sand siblings just turn away except for Gaara who stares her down before his name is called to fight next.

"good luck, Gaara" Adriel cheerfully waves him off before leaning on the balcony and watching to see his opponent, Rock Lee's name was called to the middle ring.

"this will be an interesting fight" Adriel joyfully mentions to anyone listening to her, her team nod while Temari stands next to her. During the battle she had been watching Adriel's actions towards Gaara being pummelled by Rock Lee, she spoke Gaara's name soft and emotionless but Temari could see how she was really feeling through her body language. Adriel's hands gripped tighter and tighter onto the bars of the balcony and stays still until the dust clears and shows that Gaara is lying there limp.

Guy-sensei had stopped the match but Gaara's hand burst out from the rubble proving he had won, Temari and Kankuro could hear the soft sound of metal being uncrushed in Adriel's iron grip. The bar holds deep dents where she had been holding the bars making them rather confused to why she was so worried about him, Gaara slowly makes his way to see his team mates and scowls angrily at Guy for stopping his battle like that; it was the second time in the Chuunin this had happened. Adriel waves shortly but still has her face turned away to where the battle had taken place, Gaara stands with many scrapes and cuts on his body making Adriel stare him up and down then raise an offering hand. Gaara squirms to back away from her touch making her retract her hand, Kankuro was too busy telling Gaara how awesome he had been but Temari could see some type of pain in the motions of the Snow Genin.


	7. Frustration

Evening set in with a red glow and everyone was making their way home for the night before it eloped into full darkness, Gaara had been walking around on his own as he would usually do for peace and quiet when he was in a foul mood; most of the shops where now shut apart from the more -adult- ones and small ramen bars that sit open and tucked away neatly between tall houses and apartments. Gaara slowly traipsed the street deep in his own thoughts and listening to his footsteps and heart beats thumping to a steady beat, talking is heard breaking the calm tranquillity and a curtain is pulled up from a nearby ramen shop in front of the Sand siblings view, a familiar face pokes out from it with her mask stick attached to her face. Once the curtain drapes back to its resting place her attention is brought onto Gaara now broken from the back of his mind to look at her, Adriel slowly walks over stopping in front of him and giving a short hand up to say hello. Gaara only grunts and looks at her, the moon enveloping them in light; she walks silently by his side down the street and resting on the grass of a hill on the out skirts. Both deep in thought and saying nothing to each other at all. Bush's rustle out of place near by breaking their little paradise as a dark figure comes out wielding a torturous grin.

"what's this? Two little love birds all by themselves?" annoyed and rather frustrated Adriel looks up from her day dream and tells him to shut up with her index finger to her mask, he just begins talking louder making the Snow Genin blast ice at him and freeze him soild.

"dam noisy…" she groans about to relax when more of them appear around them both glaring angrily, this time Gaara had finally been bothered to open his eyes to look around. The grass beside him moves as Adriel gets up and pulls some hand gestures crating a large black smoke, Gaara finds him self snatched by an unknown force that throws him up into the air. Opening his pissed eyes I looks up at the stars above him quickly moving and the wind blowing through his hair, he was moving through the air again, sitting up from his back and looking around Adriel was carrying him in her Fox form again growling and snarling to her self.

"why can't people just stop being ninja's for a day and sleep for goodness sake" she barks half acidly and swoops slowly through the air giving Gaara time to adjust him self on her back. "don't you think so as well Gaara-san?" silence and no reply is heard from her miniature passenger, dropping down onto a high grassy hill she stands there for a moment turning her head up to look at Gaara, not sleeping but merely relaxing on her back with his eyes closed on his stomach; this whole situation brings a toothy smile to the artic fox's face.

"suppose here is good" Adriel lays down and curls her tail over her nose in the long grass that begins tickling her nose when it sways, in the silence sniff's are all that's heard from the pair as they rest quietly in the middle of the field until it begins to get cold, Gaara shifts and nudges into her fur; noticing she gently rolls him off and wraps her paws around him. He opens one eye to find him self tucked up into Adriel with her cheek protecting him from the high winds and keeping him warm. Shuffling to get comfy he closes his eye again, sun light brush's against Gaara's face making him open his eyes, peeringing up the artic fox was still above him but still this time he was on the ground under him, water drips from her onto the side of his face; the water was warm.

"rain?" Gaara nudges out from under Adriel but everything around him was dry and sunny, his head shifts to her instead; her eye was watered up and trickling in her sleep down her fur to the ground below. Gaara stares blankly unsure of what to make of the sight, his hand reach's out and puts a fist to the warm salty water rubbing it away making Adriel murmur like a dog and open the eye slowly stopping halfway and looking down until she has some sense to notice or at least remember Gaara. Her eye trails up his body starting from his waist, the rest of his body was perched and sitting on her arm leaning closer to her face. The blue ice like eye shifts to look straight at Gaara then around her, they squint and crumble shut then flash back open again.

"heh sorry Gaara-san, did I fall asleep?" Adriel murmurs to her self stretching out the back of her self and raising her bum into the air, Gaara vibrates on her arm as all Adriel's muscles stretch and her mouth opens wide to show all of the sharp teeth tucked away and hidden from sight all other times. "Temari-san and Kankuro-san will be worried about where you've gone" Adriel blinks at his emotionless glare that wrinkles up his face, she scowls back and her ears prop up then hide down the back of her neck again; without warning Gaara finds him self pushed onto the ground under Adriel's chin with his back to the ground and looking up. "you'll give your handsome face wrinkles Gaara-kun don't scowl like that silly"

His scowl just tightens as he looks up at her with a taunting glare that would scare the living jaheebies out of any sane person, Adriel only nudges her nose into him stomach and sniffs him with a taunting but playful whine towards Gaara before he finds him self soaked in drool from one huge lock lick from the mass of pink muscle also hiding in Adriel's muzzle. Gaara's eyes stare straight through her in utter confusion and horror at what had just happened to him, Adriel keeps licking him with her tongue making him roll around in the dirt, lift up off the ground and then drop back down when her tongue went from being on him to back in her mouth. By the end of this torture Gaara lay there unsure of whether he should be angry or calm at the slobber and drool coating his entire body. Adriel bursts into fits of laughter at his red spiky hair now coated in spit and gel like, licking the top of his head she gives him a permanent Mohawk to his still putrefied face.

The artic fox picks him up by his Gourd in her mouth and flips him back onto her back with her tail before flying off in search of his guardians, she see's them down below looking around and shouting his name. she yelps loudly to grab their attention and skids down to the muddy earth below, they look at the red hair on their back and peer up as Gaara slumps off soggy and still looking the same as when Adriel took off, she gives Temari the gourd and Kankuro sniffs Gaara before holding his nose and jumping back.

"what the heck happened to you smell like a wet dog's fur!" they looks at Gaara's face still stuck like that. "a heh that would be my fault" Adriel backs up away from the group and leisurely walks away to get ready to leave Gaara turns to look giving a grunt that makes her freeze. "I was right Gaara-san" Adriel bluntly turns and gives soft eyes before turning back and walking away into the busy city away from them. "Gaara? What was she talking about?" Temari stares at her back before looking at Gaara curiously. "…don't know" Gaara bluntly answer's lying as he glares into space before walking away. "I'm hungry" he bluntly states expecting to be given food at the order.

For the short break everybody trained and prepared for the final Chuunin, everything was going well until Sasuke was supposed to turn up but didn't so Temari had to go out in his place until he turned up. Gaara skulked around the different levels scaring the wits out of random people, Gaara pokes his head up to see Adriel talking and laughing between some of the Leaf ninja, including Naruto and Sakura. They all shiver at the feeling of a strong aura coming closer, turning they jump back to see Gaara now standing next to them with Kankuro. "G-Gaara" one boy whispers nervously to his friend as they back off Naruto stands nervously beside Adriel not even fazed.

"hello Gaara-san, Kankuro-san. Came to watch Temari-san fight against that guy?" they look at the nervous group behind her shaking in their sandals, Gaara and him give a evil smirk making some whimper quietly. Adriel doesn't seem too interested in the sand siblings and changes her head back to the open balcony and leans on her elbow, Naruto leans in next to her making Gaara's chest tighten up; he chose to ignore it though and mind his own business as usual. After the fights Sasuke finally showed up to fight Gaara, before he goes Adriel catch's him with her ice spell and gives him a quick squeeze as the icy chills softly brush up and swirl around his body then disappear.

"good luck Gaara-san" she mutters under her breath before turning away back to where everyone else was looking, Naruto shouts for Sasuke while Adriel stays silent the entire fight. Gaara was slowly increasing in anger and insanity through out the battle and locked him self away in his sand barrier to try protect him self, Sasuke's hand gets through the sand barrier and gets Gaara. Temari notice's Adriel doing the metal stress crush while she watch's, her breath getting slower but deeper as she keeps her self back from saying anything; when his sand barrier determinates he's clutching his shoulder in pain to the horror of the sand sibling.

"this isn't good, Gaara-san looks like he's about to go mad" Naruto mutters staring at Gaara's demented expression, Sasuke sense's something and escapes the ring followed quickly by the angry Gaara. "what the…" Adriel runs towards the balcony and jumps from the ledge to the distress of everyone yelling. "ADRIEL-SAN!!" they all look in horror then cover their eyes to the sight of a huge ice fox flying up from the ledge into the sky taking the attention of everyone, loud gasps are heard as Adriel flies out into the forest after Gaara. "Gaara-san you bakka…." Adriel circles the skies above until she spots Gaara and Sasuke perched and talking on a branch, she doesn't intrude on the battle and merely turns back close by to listen in.


	8. Trouble

Gaara's rage was increased and his face was starting to chip away taking Adriel by surprise, Gaara starts screaming and his arm becomes like a huge claw, half of his face becomes that of a demons and his single eye turns black with a golden pupil. Adriel gasps and stares at him unsure of what was going to happen but this was all giving her a terrible feeling.

"Gaara-san…what's happening to you?" Gaara and Sasuke battle it out from the tree branch's, Sasuke didn't seem to have any chance against him and was barely dodging his attacks. A fiery kunai flies past slicing the tree and almost hitting her making her gulp Gaara wasn't acting the same he was talking with blood thirsty lust to kill the Uchiha, Sasuke put up a good fight but Gaara gets the upper hand and is about to claw Sasuke to death but he's saved by Adriel who drops his knocked out body on a tree to protect him before listening to Gaara shout and yell angrily out.

Gaara grips his head and screams in pain to the horror of Adriel listening to all of his pain and looking at Sasuke's limp body resting and breathing heavily. "why do you run and hide?! Come out my PREY!" for the first time Adriel shudders she makes the mistake of taking her head out of hiding to look at where he is, seeing the mask he snarls loudly. "you…..hsssk YOU!" he yells to the now distressed Adriel, luckily she had left Sasuke far away from harms way. She steps out onto the branch making her self visible to Gaara's growing lust to kill her where she stands. "this pain….what a thrill, all of this pain I want more and I will rip you shred from shred to gain it!" he yells making Adriel wince, Gaara creates more sand giving him a tail. His demon form was growing stronger and larger, his chakra Auror became stronger and stronger sending shudders down her spine.

"Gaara-san! Calm down, there's no need to be so angry!" Adriel tries to reason with him but his threatening sand formations make her think twice about stepping closer to him, Adriel wasn't able to stand there for long before Gaara was finally shifting at her from the branch; she manages to miss his first attack easily and jump to another branch close by, Gaara snarls and his insanity crumbles further. "stop running away and fight me!" Gaara yells sending sand towards her to try trap her down onto the trunk but she manages to just dodge the attack with a severe scrape to her left arm drawing the thinnest droplet of blood to the pleasure of Gaara.

Temari and Kankuro hide close by watching this dispute too afraid to help, Adriel lands on a branch and looks at the torn flesh. "Gaara-san if you don't calm down this instant I will---" Adriel's voice becomes louder which didn't help the already mentally lost Gaara trying to smack her again this time succeeding to knock her in the neck with his claws sending her flying to the ground below. The masked Snow Genin lies limp on the ground struggling to get up to the loud thump and approaching steps, the growls and snarls of Gaara getting louder and now above her. A foot is placed heavily on her back squashing her onto the ground and knocking the air out of her lungs, the foot stays placed there as she breath's heavily and gasps out in pain only making Gaara lust for the sweet sounds.

"you should of stayed out of my way" Gaara snarls pushing harder to retrieve an ear crushing scream from the Snow Genin. Struggling like a mere worm under his foot she manages to escape in a puff of smoke and reappear up against a close by tree but not far enough that Gaara had lost her for longer than couple minutes. "G…Gaara-san" Adriel gasps sucking all the air she can out of her lungs before looking up at the demon smirking at her whimpers, with a quick smack from the tip of his tail her over mask is taken off to reveal the under one making him glare at this troublesome sight. "you really are an irritating sight" Gaara groans kneeling and using his claw like nail to rip down the cloth wrapping on the lip and chin to see her under skin, Gaara stares at the lips trembling and then her teeth now biting her lip to hold back what ever she was thinking.

"you're pathetic, thinking that you could trick me with your disgusting love act" Gaara's free hand wraps around her throat and his thumb digs deep into her Addams apple sending surges of pain through her, she gasps and grits her teeth trying to say something in-between the pain. "G…Gaara-san I…" Gaara's grip loosens in curiously to hear the weak pleads of his prey never trembling in his grasp but biting the lip until it bleeds.

"it was never an act" Adriel manages to gasp out sending Gaara into sudden blind fury all he see's is red and hot flash's surging in his body as he grips his head again and screaming out once more, he didn't want to hear it; the mere words made him sick, all his life people had told him they either hated him or their love was nothing more than an act, being driven into a corner, Gaara's last and only string holding him onto sanity snapped.

"when I fight I fight for me only, trying to get this close to me was your biggest mistake" Gaara yells as his body begins to be taken over fully by the body form of his inner demons, Adriel grabs the bark of the tree she was propped onto watching in horror at the grotesque sight of Gaara.

"Gaara-san! Please don't let what ever is eating away at you possess you, listen to me!" Adriel pleads reaching her hand out to him and shouting with misery in her voice, Gaara opens his black eyes and stares at her with golden orbs.

"shut the hell up! Sand Shuriken!" Gaara snaps throwing piercing sand bullets in her direction, using ice she deflects them the same way Gaara would with his sand.

"fool, think only of your self…love only your self. That is what it means to be the strongest" Gaara growls at Adriel disposing of the sand and ice to look him right in the eyes, now growling in anger at him.

"Gaara-san you Bakka!" Adriel yells at him taking him by surprise but it disappears just as fast as it had appeared.

"what's wrong? You where so collected and cocky before, show me your strength let me grind it into dust before your eyes" Adriel quirks before running at him with her fists raised and making hand signs.

"ice beam!" she shouts to Gaara's joy and he butches up to respond to her attack, mouths open in several area's on his body.

"wind style, sand storm devastation!" sand flies from his mouth at Adriel as she defends it off and she keeps running at him, kicking him in the gut and sending him backwards to a tree. Gaara gives an evil laugh as his desires are met and gets back into pose for another round. Gaara watches as Adriel gets up from the ground, the kick had taken some of her strength because of his dire weight.

"I think I'll toy with you for a while, I'll enjoy seeing you beg for mercy at my feet before you die" Gaara throws more sand bullets slicing her shoulder and making her grab it with a wince, Gaara smacks her with the same move over and over sending her sliding across the landscape; she mutters something under her breath between rounds until a cliff face is against her back sending shivers down her spine. "what's this strange feeling…?" Adriel whisper's lifting her head to look at the approaching beast stomping closer into view and staring at her mangled form sprawled in the dirt.

"I feel like I'm on fire…I see it now I can't lose, I have to pull him back" Temari peers as the stupid Adriel stands back up breathing heavily and looking towards Gaara now pressed on over powering him. "Gaara-san! I will win and I will bring you back from your dark tunnel, even if I have to keep going and going until I'm in pieces around your feet!" Adriel taunts in anger at Gaara, her lips now drooped and her dug in teeth releasing her mangled puffy pink skin.

"what is this, you come at me and that's all you've got? All that effort and you couldn't even touch me, what a joke!" Gaara respites towards the now steady Adriel reaching around her body and piling everything to the ground to give her more room to stretch.

"the only reason you're not touched is because up until now, I've never wanted to hurt someone so precious to me" Adriel quietly whispers with her chin on her shoulder and looking to the ground, Gaara doesn't hear this but Temari and Kankuro hiding close by do and look down on the foolish woman; stunned at the way she is acting, she could really be out to hurt Gaara but the way she was acting was like an open door showing that she obviously truly did find Gaara everything important to her.

Gaara slams his arms at her but she jumps up swiftly and lands on his claw hand looking along the arm like a bridge to Gaara, now glaring at her without another word she runs down his arm towards him and pulls a kunai out to strike him with. Gaara's tail sways up and stretches into spikes then flies down his arm towards the forwarding Adriel, pouncing up she climbs onto his tail and runs along it nearing closer and closer to Gaara's body.


	9. One is the

Adriel hadn't expected this and was grabbed by the ankle making her fall flat on her face on his tail, the sand starts to eat up her body all around her in attempt to suck her in like quicksand. "ice slice" she calls and ice blasts out cutting away the sand while she gets up and starts running again, doing a quick jolt on the final step she does an agile spin on his shoulder and latches to his back. Gaara spins violently trying to see her finally he grabs her with his claws and pulls her around to meet his face, Gaara snarls his teeth edging closer to her body ready to smash down and crush her bones. He stops to see her lips curl up into a smile and then pucker into a kissing form.

"boom" she silently whispers making his eyes widen, on his back was a Kunai with a bomb, in a mass explosion flame and smoke rises followed by a loud and deafen bang. Gaara drops Adriel letting her escape away to see from afar the damage she had placed on him. When the smoke clears Adriel looks at Gaara now taking the form of a half melted candle, the explosion had deformed his back and side of his body; Adriel gives a small snigger looking at the mortified Gaara.

"you look like a used candle Gaara-san" Temari and Kankuro look at her with the 'she's-crazy' wide eyes, Gaara stands trying to prop him self up as the sand around him is crumbling to the ground in small mounds, she had managed to damage him at his weakest spot but she didn't hurt his under body at all. Momentarily Gaara was defenceless against anything attack giving Adriel the upper hand for now, without wasting a moment she runs in and starts pummelling him with kicks and punch's that speed up faster and stronger until her arm's and leg's movement's can hardly be seen until he's in the air. Then she takes a move from Rock Lee's books and does a downward kick sending him back into the ground below. Gaara's demon form was now terribly disfigured and melting into the ground like wax, his sand floats around him in attempt to heal the body and rebuild it. Adriel delivers him a double slam fist punch right in the chest while he's standing and trying to regain breath, Gaara lies on the ground limp and not moving now while Adriel lands on one tip toe then the rest of her feet and looking at where Gaara had been blasted to; her breath only inch's out of place before settling into a normal rhythm. Gaara lies in the crater looking up and trying to think about something, Temari stunned by this whole thing.

Temari [Taking Gaara on in his current form…] her eyes wide and watching Adriel step closer to the hole where Gaara's legs and tail are pocking out.

Gaara [where did that strength come from?] Gaara lies there thinking to the sound of light footsteps pacing closer to him.

"There's absolutely no way I'm going to lose to a girl like you!" he screams angrily making Adriel jump in surprise at his sudden outburst, masses of sand burst out around Gaara and into the sky with great speed sending Adriel flying when some of it collapse's in her direction and spreading fast, smoke covers the land and sky above until a large bulky silhouette can be barely seen. Adriel stares up and gasps at the colossal figure towering right above her casting all light into darkness around her and blocking out the sun. the giant mountain like blob starts to move slowly with heavy footsteps through the forest crushing everything in its path.

"the perfect position…Shukaku…" Adriel stares up at what she has concluded to as the once human Gaara, worry fills her thoughts when she remembers the city that isn't that far from their current positions. Finally a bellowing evil voice echo's through the ears and tree's around them."well what do you know? I never thought you would truly bring this out of me" the voice gruffly laughs and looking at his large bulky self, his entire body devoured in the sand like demons body, he was nothing like his self anymore. Adriel jumps when she looks down to see Gaara's sand that had fallen on her during the explosion earlier was groping its way around her body and coiling her into a trap capturing and destroying her chance of escape. Being lifted up into the air she finds her self face to face with Gaara snarling and looking down on the tiny ordurve the sand he summoned had brought him, Adriel struggles looking at Shukaku as the sand wraps further around her body this amuses him.

"the more you struggle the tighter the sand will become around your little body" he monotones with spite and delight when he can almost hear her little bones cracking under the pressure. "you really are good at amusing me" Gaara's demon smiles and his eyes squint to make sure his lustful smile is defiantly seen in Adriel's slowly tightening eyes. Something begins to appear on his head, Adriel looks up as the sand demon tilts to bring her face to face with a very deluded Gaara, she almost squirms when she looks at his blank eyes with nothing but white where his once blue eyes where staring emotionlessly at her mask. The sight in front of her made her forget about the sand gripping her body because of the fleeting horrors starting to grip her heart.

"G-Gaara-san?" Adriel manages to gasp as she's brought close enough so that Gaara is breathing down her neck sending chills down every part of her skin and making the hairs stand up.

"to thank you for entertaining me here today…I'll show you the true power of the manifestation of the sand" Gaara hoarsely whispers in her ear before his head hits her shoulder, Adriel looks straight ahead to afraid to move or say anything. Adriel can feel Gaara's hands rubbing against her stomach into a hand sign, she manages to shift just slightly to see what he's doing but even before looking she knew what he was going to do and she could only hope and prey it was a bluff. Gaara shudders while trying to cast the spell Adriel muttering getting louder into his ear in the hopes of snapping him out of it.

"Gaara-san please! Listen to me, don't do it. Your mind and soul will be eaten away by Shukaku" the scraping sand around her tense's to shut her up, Gaara ignores her as if he can't hear her at all and continues what he's doing. His eyes shut and he murmurs the sinful words that Adriel screams for him not to utter from his lips.

"Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu" Adriel's eyes widen as she screams 'no' in his ear in horror as the Jutsu puts him to sleep releasing Shukaku's spirit within him self and he falls limp, collapsing entierly into Adriel's figure. Her head droops onto his shoulder in pleading gasps of sadness and air, the large sand demon shifts, eyes widening as his pupils dilate and spin as if unlocking like a seal then getting used to its surroundings. The demon blasts its head up into a high pitched roar as he yells out in joy.

"I'm free! Here I come!!" he yells making Adriel squirm but never move away from the lifeless rag doll Gaara that had become against her, suddenly the sand shifts off dropping her onto Shukaku's head her hold stays on Gaara as she shakes him frantically and screams his name. "too bad weakling, there's nothing you can do for Gaara now" the demon smugly sniggers looking at the girl on his head and licking his lips, sand slides up her legs dragging her body up to her waist under his skin trapping her from escaping. "stop with your futile plea's, Gaara can't hear you and your voice is getting on my nerves" Shukaku laughs sitting down on the ground to get a good look around him self before planning his next move. Something boils up inside Adriel's soul, she had never noticed it until now her voice deepens into an angry whisper.

"shut the hell up…" the demon jabbers on and on about how good he is and then foul mouthing Gaara, this gradually cause's her to repeat her self until she got so angry that her practically screamed the words 'shut up' at the demon that it silenced the large demon instantly. Shukaku felt a strong and evil pureness starting to bubble and burn at the skin of Adriel, her eyes shut and her arms still wrapped around Gaara's limp body. In a monstrous screech Adriel's head bangs backwards and up to look into the sky as a white mist escapes her mouth blinding Shukaku, at first he stands trying to look before getting into defence at a roar and a boom sounds in the distance. A large stream of puffy smoke bursts from the veil over his nose and flies off into the distance before another large bang is sounded making another large orb of smoke in the distance.

Shukaku raises his claws when a heavy wind flows through the air whisking away the lingering clouds, large blue pools of sapphire glint and shimmer through the smoke until her entire body is now in the open plain. The rest of her eyes are a ruby red ring circling her eyelids into a slit formation running down and along her snow white nose like Shukaku her sapphire pupils could send shivers through even the strongest demon because the rest of her eye was a deep colourless black, sucking in and locking the sand demon in a staring contest; the rest of her body was a pure snow white making the long wafting tail behind her more noticeable in the light blue cloudless sky around them.

"Neivauncas? Who would of guessed you would be hiding in such a pathetic girl" Shukaku laughs setting his sights on the artic fox demon standing before him silently looking at him before baring teeth to answer him. "who would of thought such an ugly demon like you would of survived this long" Shukaku's laughter seizes to this insult but drops into a cunning smirk as he steps closer to the opposing demon. "since you are free, join me in taking over this mortal world" Neivauncas snarls loudly before snorting when he removes his foot from the earth he was about to step on. "I wouldn't join you if you where the last demon on this wretched planet" her back rises as she sets her self into a pouncing position and begins to circle the sand demon with intimidating eyes. "you're still as unsightly as you where such a long time ago…" Neivauncas taunts getting Shukaku into a irritated state of mind.

"words coming from a demon traitor? You where one of the good looking demon as well. It's a terrible sight to find my self having to kill you" Shukaku yells swinging his tail in the air and placing one of his hands on his stomach. "here I come baby!" he yells loudly making her ears slick back along her neck then prick up again, she stops her circling and steadies her pouncing motive straight at him from the side. "I hope you're ready to die, lets do this" Neivauncas snarls and releases her claws in the ground at her paws and whips her tail through the green tree's now slightly irritated by the silly monotone Shukaku obtains in his voice.

"I don't know what's worse, your looks or your stupid voice" she spits in a hissy tone trying to make Shukaku hurry up and make the first attack against her.


	10. Lonliest Number

Shukaku raises his claw from his belly into the air and starts to call his first attack in the direction of Neivauncas "Wind style, air bullet!" he shouts loudly slamming his fist straight into his gut and firing a bright blue orb straight at her, it tears through the air with great speed but she manages to leap into the air to dodge the first attack.

"Ice style, Ice shard rain!" leaping up her claws glow vividly before firing out of her paws across the ground straight towards Shukaku, he manages to blast them away with another air bullet knocking the shards into various spots around the area. Neivauncas lands on her four paws and slides across the ground, tipping to the side as she runs straight at him with her fangs bare. Shukaku repeatedly blast air bullets at her as she jumps from side to side and skidding only inch's growing closer to him every second. "too bad…" Shukaku spits blasting 4 at once in all directions, she manages to dodge 3 of them but the 4th breaks through her dodging system and knocks her straight in the ribcage sending her crashing on top of the forest, crushing a lot of the tree's under her weight. Shukaku cheers in triumph at his successful blast.

"I did it, I killed her!" he yelps not even bothering to see her clear movement signs of her being alive. "now that kind of hurt, that was an awful lot of chakra that you blasted me with. I have to admit, hit me with a couple more of those and even I wont last much longer" Neivauncas taunts trying to piss him off further while she wriggles up from her side back onto all fours, she begins to run at him again.

"Ice style, Body Freeze!" out of her mouth a streaking beam fires out and hit's the ground close to Shukaku who only laughs at the pathetic attack. "missed me, your aiming is terrible!" Shukaku shouts in his irritating tone as Neivauncas lands with a large thump making the ground shudder.

Tree's quiver around her mass as if scared of her devilish way of smiling while watching the stupid excuse for a demon prance around with a cocky attitude, his victory is short lived when his feet become glued to the ground along with his entire legs; up to his waist. He had been trapped in a frozen lake that he had been too busy to notice forming and creeping up him ever so slowly to begin with.

"at least now you can't squirm around and wreck the place with your fat butt" Neivauncas snorts with sniggers making Shukaku's eyes form into slits with a death glare embedded into them. Neivauncas starts running at him at top speed, his only defence has his air bullets but she was able to dodge them with ease long enough to be able to latch her claws straight into his sandy flesh and bore her teeth straight into his shoulder, she gives a disgusted husk wanting to let go and spit like a madman. Shukaku smacks her several times with his tail scraping her with the raspy ridges making her bounce off of him and run back to latch onto him again, she swipes at his face while he spits more air at her to keep her away from him only to find her landing on his back and severing ice shards straight in quick enough to leap away when his tail crash's down smacking one of the shards further into his shoulder.

While she swoops to the ground with her back turned she could hear him roar out in pain giving her a ridged smile at the acknowledgment that one of her moves had worked, flipping her head she see's that one of the shards lay pierced into him strangling his arm useless for the rest of their battle. Inside of Neivauncas's head a small wispy voice echo's through her ears making them prick up to attention, the voice gets louder until heard.

"please be careful not to hurt Gaara-san, he's on top of his head" Adriel is heard from inside of the ice demons mind from the chamber in which she had been sealed inside the young girl. Adriel sits submerged in a miniature winter land with her on her knee's on top of a lake of pure and solid white ice, looking up into the darkness and calling out. Adriel could only hear everything going on outside but could guess what was happening in the real world. Neivauncas nods to her self pinpointing where about Gaara was and noting not to attack there, Adriel's face stays a painted worry at the thought of how long Gaara had been under the sleeping spell curse now. In the real world Neivauncas charges towards the sand demon and manages to reinstall her teeth straight into his skin and her claws snatch at his snout to keep him from spitting more air chakra at her. "Ice style, ice shackles" she murmurs through a mouth full of Shukaku, her fur sparks a shiny colour before a sort of powder is released into the air and falls on to him in several places. At first it seems harmless enough but like a sudden rash it spreads like wild fire freezing him to the snow fox making any attack or struggle useless.

Just like Gaara, Adriel appears from the spine of Neivauncas and runs across her as soon as her entire body has escaped the demonic meld that she had been set to. Gradually working her way up the giant demons she springs across onto Shukaku's nose and looks up at his forehead where Gaara was cemented into.

"rise and shine you bakka!" Adriel yells as she runs and lands a heavy smack straight into Gaara's face, Shukaku roars from his frozen chops in anger managing to break it just enough to speak his mind. Neivauncas's ears tilt back and her tail flutters up in the breeze at the now awakening Gaara, Shukaku yells as his seal begins to reform trapping him inside once again.

"that's just great, give me a break I just got here!" Shukaku wines like a pathetic little child as his bright golden eye's decrease to nothing but a dull grey as Gaara's open mind takes over again, the empty shell of the sand demon still persists to attack. "we may have released the Jutsu but this guy still has some fight left in him" Neivauncas finds her self beginning to be shoved backwards, trampling and flattening everything behind her paws.

Gaara eyes spark open into a icy glare with tremendous anger at both the demon and the masked Snow ninja that had got in his way yet again. Watching down at Adriel she skids back down the nose of the hollow shell that was Shukaku to the tip of his nose and halts, her mask tilts up and a growl passes her throat as she gets back up and jolts straight at Gaara with her fist ready to smack him in the chops again.

"sand coffin!" Gaara snaps locking Adriel's feet at Shukaku's eyebrow level, sand starts to float straight at her but Neivauncas quickly blasts an ice shield around her to protect Adriel from the bone crushing sand. "you think I'm a fool?!" Gaara yells out at them both, inside the protective barrier sand begins to rise around Adriel's legs slowly devouring her body, Shukaku's shell continues to shove the snow fox demon backwards forming dirt clouds around them.

The ice barrier smash's making all the piling sand burst out and melt back into the forms body, Adriel would have gasped with quick relief at her lucky escape but she wasn't safe just yet. She peers up at Gaara with her breathing getting heavier and heavier with emotion. "this kid has too much Chakra left, I've used up all of my chakra just battling him" Neivauncas yells to alert Adriel at their dwindling chance's of surviving this without a near death experience.

"I'll wipe you from the face of the earth I will not cease to exist" Adriel's emotional breathing slows again as her sharp nails coil into fists and dig straight through her palms, her head looks down at her missing feet trying to control everything she was bottling up inside. Adriel turns to look at the city on the horizon in which Gaara was pushing them if they didn't do anything the village would be attacked.

"I have to protect them…I need to protect you…" Adriel mutters under her breath as she turns back to look up at Gaara, her clenched fists unravel and displeasure forms on her open lips. Gaara's fury is paused with faded perplexity making the sand wrapped around her feet and ankles loosen to buy her enough time to escape its grasp and run up to Gaara. She drops to her knee's in front of him from the lack of strength she had left in her body and breaths heavily before looking Gaara right in the eyes.

"believe me I will kill you, I will not cease to exist--" Adriel pounce's at him but sand grabs her making all of her movements against him futile her teeth bare further now as she struggles closer.

"I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU!" she outburst as a sudden echoing smack is heard making both Gaara and Neivauncas's eyes widen as far as they could. Adriel had head butted him straight across the forehead with all her might; both of her hands had the nails dug back into the soft and swollen flesh shaking frantically to try consume some of the anger and urge to do it again and again until Gaara's skull had cracked open like a boiled egg. Blood trickles down Gaara's forehead while clear black marks stain Adriel's mask all the way down her face in all area's, Shukaku's empty shell begins to crack and waste away under the weight and pressure Adriel had placed upon Gaara in her finishing blow.

Neivauncas is released from having to hold the demon back and watches as the sand abandons its hold and piles up along the forest floor with a large shaking quake. "a head butt to finish him off? Adriel-san always did use her brute force strength against everyone…" Neivauncas sighs trying to spot the falling pair in-between the rock and debris forming in the air, Adriel looks to the far away ground below then at Gaara now knocked out and falling beside her.

"shame I can't stick around to see how this ends, time to end up sealed again" Neivauncas grumbles catching both Gaara and Adriel on her tail and shifting away from the falling sand that would have possibly crushed them and lays them both down on the top of 2 tree's separated by one of her fallen ice shards safely away from everything falling from the sky. Adriel sits up slowly followed by Gaara glaring in her direction through the ice shard and breathing heavily from the powerful damage he had been given. The ice shard glistens in the light and slices down the middle of them making half of Adriel Gaara and in vice versa, they just sit staring at each other trying to take in as much air as they could to recover.


	11. Health and Fireworks Final

Adriel gapes open her mouth and puts on a cheesy dying monotone to speak. "I can't go on any further I've used up all of my chakra, by the looks of it so have you. No matter how much you deny it me and you are a lot alike, more than you know. We shouldn't be fighting" Adriel manages to spit out through out breathing then stands up slightly shaky on the tree top to match Gaara's movements, their eyes still glued to each other and not fleeting for one second. They both get into another fighting position, the ice shard starts to crack signalling them to jump and go for each other again, Gaara raises his fist up while Adriel puts hers into an upper cut position as she heads towards him and meeting him in the middle. Gaara ends up walloped in the face again by Adriel's fist sending him back the way he came knocking him into the tree he had been placed on while Neivauncas watches shaking her head.

"why do humans never learn when to stop?" Adriel falls with Gaara to the ground below, hitting a few branch's as she plummets to the grass on the ground face first where as Gaara lands on his back. Laying there for a few moments the sand sibling gathers just enough strength to turn and look at the girl sprawled meters away from him near the trunk of a old tree, she lies there silently without any form of breathing. After a couple minutes she starts to move again, her eyes twist and turn until she see's where Gaara was and a silly smile forms on her lips as she twitches to turn in his direction. Gaara watches her as she forces her self closer to him no matter what, a bulky shadow floats over them in the sky.

Adriel manages to get onto her arms and starts to wriggle along army style slowly wincing every time she moves her ribcage and shoulders. Finally she had manages to get at least a meter from him before he starts to release he can't actually move and was vulnerable now.

"stay away from me" Gaara gives a husky gasp but she ignores it and kneels weakly at his side looking down at him while he looks up still struggling helplessly to get away.

"being alone…I know that feeling" Gaara pauses for a moment looking at the battered and bruised ninja, refusing to back down. "I've been there, in that dark and lonely place. You're not there anymore Gaara-san, there are others around you that you mean a lot to" Adriel's head turns to look at her muddy and bleeding hands touching the painful wounds.

"I care about one person more than my self and I wont let anyone hurt them, that's why I wont ever give up. I'll kill them if I have to" Adriel's fist reopens the wounds that had tried to heal, Gaara looks at her confused.

"but why? Why would you do this for anyone but your self?" Gaara couldn't understand such fleeting feelings for anyone else, Adriel shifts her head and looks at Gaara before her hands go up to her mask and begins to untie it.

"because they saved me from myself, they rescued me from my loneliness. They where the first to accept me for who I am, he's my friend" the clink of metal is heard as a necklace drops out from around her neck with L carved into it making Gaara's eyes widen; her hands still fiddling with her mask. "Gaara-chan…I never told you what truly heals a broken heart" Gaara stares as the masked finally drops to the ground to show Adriel's Sapphire eyes peering down on him. "what heals a wounded heart is 'love' Gaara-chan" Adriel puts her fingertips on the cold metal around her neck and rubs it going slightly blushed while looking at him, a blue and white orb floats down towards her and bobs up and down before entering her heart and fading away.

A soft wind blows through Adriel and Gaara's hair making her stand up and looks to the tree's then smiles as Gaara watches her step backwards. "your loved ones are coming to find you" without another word Adriel makes a speedy but wobbly escape before the sand siblings are reunited, only moments after her disappearance Temari and Kankuro appear at his side with their weapons ready to attack any enemies only to find the space empty. "that's enough" Gaara murmurs making them turn around to look at him still laying on the ground, he just stares back into space with a sort of awed look but there is no emotion showing them how he is really feeling.

"alright Gaara" Kankuro picks him up off the ground and wraps his arm around his shoulder to keep him upright, Temari looks down at droplets of blood and a recognisable mask but doesn't say anything as they disappear off to get Gaara healed. Inside the Leaf Village hospital Gaara had been asleep on one of the bed and had woken up to see something on his bedside table, Kankuro had fallen asleep with his mouth open ready to catch flies. Reaching over to feel what it is he picks it up in his finger tips to look at it, a slip of paper was folded up and untouched making Gaara curious.

[ Gaara-san, I heard there's a festival for the Chuunin's happening in a weeks time! Promise me you'll be there its been so long since we watched the fireworks together.

P.S please get better soon

~Adriel Uncas ]

Gaara's lips curl up into a long and forgotten emotion taking him by surprise, the door slides and Gaara hides the paper before dropping back down onto the pillow and getting back his usual emotionless face. Temari looks at him and smiles then looks at the sleep Kankuro with a short tot and an unhappy glare. "he was suppose to stay awake, that bakka" Temari prods Kankuro's cheek making his snoring jump until he groans and opens his eyes to look into the eyes of an angry Temari making him jump with fright. "you where suppose to be watching over Gaara, not sleeping with your mouth gaping open for the whole world to get sucked into!!" While they aren't looking Gaara gives a faint smile at his siblings fighting over his safety, it made him release how much what Adriel had said was true for him. He had found loved ones that cared about him.

[Week later at the big festival]

All the Chuunin students that passed where being given certificates and congratulations one of them being Adriel who stands in a black kimono with red roses and a white fox mask over her face once again. Gaara peers over at her wanting to go over but not plucking up the courage to really move his feet, why was all this happening now was all that could run through his mind.

"and a big congratulations to our final Chuunin exam passé. Adriel Uncas!" Adriel stands up and retrieves her things then takes a short bow to the clapping and cheering before getting off stage and sitting back down. After everything at the award ceremony was done everyone split up and did as they pleased, Gaara had lost track of Adriel but found her later by a games stall. She had won and got to choose a prize, peering around she pointed to a small brown bear. Adriel looks at it, the brown bear gave her a nostalgic feeling course through her body and made her shiver with delight as she gives it a quick squeeze and a nuzzle secretly. A tap to her shoulder makes her stop loving the bear to turn and to see Gaara and his two siblings sniggering at her lustful cuddles to the poor bear.

"if you hug it any tighter it's stuffing will come out" Kankuro jokes looking at the already bloated head of the bear from her shoving the stuffing up its poor stitched body. "if you would rather, I'll hug you" Adriel puts her arms up making Kankuro run behind Temari and pull her shoulders back at a human defence. "oh Gaara-ch….Gaara-san, how are you feeling?" Adriel stutters now pulling at the bears arms and looking down away from Gaara's eyes, Temari had noticed the words she had almost said but Gaara seems to still say blunt and blind to the whole thing. "I'm getting there, what about you?" Adriel looks at her hands and giggles to her self

"my herbs and medicine took care of it all easily" Adriel waves her palms now cut less and a pale soft looking form, Adriel looks up and makes a short muffled sound then pulls at the bear harder keeping her head looking up. "d-do you guys want to watch the fire works with me? I have a camera so I wanted to take a picture of it" Kankuro snorts with a bored tone while Temari seems to trail off then push Gaara at Adriel then smile before grabbing Kankuro and jolting off.

"you guys can go without us there's thing I want to buy!" she yells loudly running away and disappearing into the busy streets of the festival leaving Gaara alone with the embarrassed Adriel. "c'mon we'll miss the fireworks" Gaara takes Adriel's hand and pulls her to the roof tops to watch, it felt like they had swapped bodies because Gaara was the nervous one the first time they had went to a festival together but now Adriel was the one stuttering and being shy. Both sit perched on the roof top side by side looking up at the stars and sniffing in the festival foods all around them, before hand they hadn't sat so close but after sly shifts they where hip to hip quietly enjoying their surroundings.

"it's been such along time since I've been to a festival with someone and done this" Adriel mutters between chewing on a dumpling, one stick was left and without meaning both Gaara and her put their hands down to grab it. Gaara puts his hand on top of hers making them both flinch, Adriel looks away with embarrassment while Gaara just looks at her hand and then calmly places it back down. Once Adriel had turned Gaara flicked up her mask making it drop down onto the roof's ground, she looked into his deep blue eyes growing a passionate red all over her face. Gaara gives a smile then turns to look at the fireworks beginning with his hand still upon hers, his fingers now entwined in hers; pulling her in he puts her entwined hand on his lap and wraps his free arm around her hip holding Adriel close.

At first she isn't sure but soon enough snuggles into him and closes her eyes for a moment to concentrate on his body heat and rhythmic heart beat, Adriel makes a squeak and pulls out her camera before pulling him into a cheek to cheek hug holding the camera up she takes a quick photo with the fireworks behind them like before. Luckily Gaara was smiling a natural smile making her grin at the camera then her head shifts back up to Gaara now inch's from her lips, something smacks the back of Adriel's head forcing her to lunge onto Gaara, their lips touch making the heat fuel straight to both of their face's. At first they sit there lip locked with no clue of what they where suppose to be doing until finally Gaara kisses back making Adriel giggle then give him a quick kiss back.

"Adriel-chan…" Gaara slowly whispers into her ear slowly, Adriel opens one of her closed eyes partially to look then whispers back. "yeah, Gaara-chan?" Gaara mutters something that Adriel can't quiet hear before he wraps his arms around her.

"I love you…" Adriel's eyes bolt open in surprise but slowly close and a smile curves around her lips as she blushes a gentle pink. "I love you as well" fireworks boom in the background lighting both of their figures like a black silhouette against the bright greens and pinks forming in the sky.


End file.
